BOOK PUBLISHERS, ARE YOU LISTENING: Newsweek Took Its Audience for Granted.

“It’s rather a case of institutions thinking that their gatekeeper status was a commercial asset to be exploited rather than something that had to be earned day by day.”

AS I WAS SAYING: Don’t mourn the end of fuddy-duddy feminism.

Feminism has often been hateful about men, and has missed the point that most women like men and that there is a natural sympathy between the sexes.

POLL: California Voters Moving Toward Wisconsin-Like Government Reforms.

But people around the world want government to be smaller than it is, and somehow they never get what they want. I think that’s a human-rights violation. We need special international courts, and trials for offending government officials.

WHAT IF SECURITY IS AS BAD AT OTHER FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AS IT APPARENTLY IS AT DOE? And what if Al Qaeda is preparing to demonstrate the answer to that question in the near future? Washington Free Beacon has a very disturbing report.

NOT OPTIMAL. Some responses:

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Average debt up again for new college grads. “It’s the latest snapshot of the growing burden of student debt and it’s another discouraging one: Two-thirds of the national college class of 2011 finished school with loan debt, and those who borrowed walked off the graduation stage owing on average $26,600 – up about 5% from the class before.”

Well, that’s no surprise.

A REMINDER: Andrew Marcus’s documentary, Hating Breitbart, opens in theaters this weekend. If there’s any justice it will do as well as Dinesh D’Souza’s 2016. I saw a screening in LA last week and it’s terrific. It makes it feel as if Andrew is still alive.

There’s a trailer at the link above. Here’s the list of theaters for its limited opening. Ask your local theaters to feature it! (Bumped).

JAPANESE NATIONALISTS rattle the cages. “Nationalism is on the rise in Japan, as it is elsewhere in Asia. But the Japanese seem only dimly aware of the fact that they live in a very precarious neighborhood, surrounded by strong nuclear powers with long memories of past conflicts with Japan. With the Russians deploying to the Far East, the South Koreans incensed by the Dokdo island dispute, the Chinese burning Japanese cars and flags, and always-volatile North Korea, the Japanese could probably use a lighter touch in their politics and diplomacy. These disputes may be a headache for the U.S., but they also demonstrate the continuing need for a strong U.S. military presence in the Pacific. The American naval presence in the region has been one of the major reasons these conflicts haven’t erupted since the end of the Korean War. Don’t expect large budget cuts for the Navy anytime soon.”

WEALTH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: China: What Flows in, Must Flow out.

The manufacturing boom of the past twenty years has made China more powerful and made its citizens wealthier than ever before. But China is quickly finding out that a wealthier population is often more demanding. The past few years have seen a spike in domestic unrest, as millions of Chinese demand higher pay, better living conditions, and an end to government corruption. Now wealthier Chinese are skirting the rules too, finding ways to avoid the restrictions the Communist Party counts on to keep the country under control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for Beijing to keep the lid on the tensions around the country.

Yes, I think they understand this over here too.  They’ll make us into beggars, ’cause beggars are easy to please.

HOW ABOUT $300 MILLION IN PUBLIC FUNDING FOR CLEAN ENERGY FIRM WORKERS TO SIT AND PLAY CARDS? That’s what is happening at LG Chem, another of those electric car battery makers that got major federal funding, according to a local Michigan television news operation. Only problem is there’s almost no demand for what LG Chem makes.

NEWS FROM THE PROGRESSIVE WORLD: “We are the coming civilization. We are the flood.”

INHOFE CATCHES OBAMA DOING THE WASHINGTON WINK-WINK AT EPA. Trust me, it ain’t pretty!

THEY JOY OF LIVING OFF OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: D.C.-region bureaucrats rake in big bucks.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on Fall Outerwear. For men, women, and children.

NOW ON YOUTUBE: Instavision: Is Atlas Shrugging? Job Creators Are Giving Up on the U.S.

TWILIGHT OF THE SORT-OF GODS: At PJM, Rich Richman reviews Claremont professor Charles R. Kesler’s new book, I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism.

OBAMA’S SECRET SECOND-TERM AGENDA, revealed. “At every turn in his presidency, Obama believes he understands Republicans and can bully them into submission. And at every turn he has underestimated Republican resolve. If Obama wins reelection he will no doubt try to govern in his second term the exact same way he tried to govern in his first. And he will get the exact same results. In other words, if Obama wins reelection, we are definitely going over the fiscal cliff.”

ECO-FASCISM: Elizabeth Nickson, veteran journalist and former Life magazine European bureau chief, discusses her new book, Eco-Fascists: How Radical Conservationists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage, in an audio interview online today at Ed Driscoll.com.

PARTYING LAST NIGHT with PJTV stars Stephen Kruiser, Alexis Garcia, AlfonZo Rachel, and Bill Whittle.

JAMES TARANTO: WAS CANDY IN CAHOOTS? “If this surmise is correct, then Crowley knew about the ‘acts of terror’ Easter egg hidden in Obama’s Sept. 12 speech, and Obama knew she knew. Romney did not know and was as incredulous as Crowley had been, because the administration had spent weeks peddling the claim that the video dunnit. Obama brought the matter up expecting incredulity from Romney and backup from Crowley. She therefore unwittingly played her role in Obama’s little ambush of his opponent. She was just clarifying the facts–or so Axelrod & Co. had led her to believe.”

OF COURSE: AARP urges Congress not to extend payroll tax break another year. “The nation’s largest seniors lobby on Thursday urged Congress and the White House not to extend a temporary payroll tax holiday beyond January. Social Security is funded by the payroll tax, and AARP worries that continuing the break to stimulate the economy will do long-term damage to the retirement program.”

It’s doomed anyway.

AMERICA’S “MORMON MOMENT?” Joel Kotkin: It’s Mormon In America. “Whether or not Mitt Romney makes it to the White House, his candidacy signals that Mormons have arrived in American political life. Just as President Obama’s nomination and election marked a sea change in the country’s tortured racial history, so Romney’s nomination has changed religious boundaries that have persisted for more than 160 years. No religious group has been more persecuted by the U.S. government, or more derided by other faiths present in the country, than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or the LDS Church, as many Mormons refer to it). . . . Today, some religious fundamentalists continue to rail against Mormons, while coastal sophisticates scoff at their earnest approach to life, religion, and family. Yet the methodical Mormon way, which stresses education, ambition, and charitable giving, has succeeded in ways equaled by few religious groups.”

Those bourgeois values do tend to work, despite all the scoffing from elites.

OLD PICTURE OF THE DAY: DECORATING IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC. “Well, the more money the Weimar Republic printed, the more useless it became. The more useless it became, the more they thought that they had just not printed enough money. It finally got to the point that people started finding all types of creative things to do with the currency. This guy is wallpapering his house with it. So, I guess you can never say a currency is useless, as you can always use it to decorate your house.”

Dave Voda, call your office!

WHOOPI GOLDBERG TO ANN ROMNEY: Hey, isn’t it true that Mormons don’t serve in the military?

No word yet if Whoopi thinks that Mormons can’t serve in NASA.